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Friday, January 30, 2009

Blair troubled daily by Iraq toll

As well he might be - but with provincial elections just 24 hours away perhaps we will learn at last that Iraq can do better without us:

The former Prime Minister insisted he was not haunted by the decision. But he added: "I reflect on it, and am troubled by it, and feel a great sense of responsibility for it."Mr Blair told The Times: "The most difficult thing in any set of circumstances is the sense of responsibility for people who have given their lives and fallen - the soldiers and the civilians."If I did not feel that, there really would be something wrong with me, and there is not a single day of my life when I do not reflect upon it... many times. And that's as it should be."On the other hand, you have to take the decision and I look at the Middle East now and I think, well, if Saddam and his two sons were still running Iraq how many other people would have died and would the region be more stable?"In total there have been 4,551 coalition deaths - 178 of them British service personnel - as well as civilian casualties estimated at anywhere up to a million.